Even if you ignore the trolls, it is a painful experience
sometimes to read the live chat on Twitch.tv.
I wanted to address some of the comments I saw coming up while watching
the coverage of Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Return to Ravnica.
So do you think we
need to prepare for eggs or was it a one-time blip?
Because it just won a pro tour, yes, you need to be prepared
for it. You need to know how they can
play around your sideboard cards, and when to concede and when to make them
play it out. You have to know these same
things against a mono red burn deck, too.
Good or bad, these decks are a part of the format, and you should be
prepared, and have a plan.
Irregardless of metagame positioning, it is also a complicated combo deck that is difficult to
play quickly enough. Note that I said
“quickly”, not “correctly”. It is even
harder to pilot this deck correctly. Do
not think you can just pick this deck up and go win a tournament with it.
This is why Jund
should always run maelstrom pulse.
Maelstrom pulse costs three mana and is a sorcery. It functions very similarly to oblivion ring
– slow and clunky. Neither card fit what
the deckbuilders predicted would be needed for this tournament, which was
instant speed, low cost removal. This
helped eggs to be able to fight through decks that didn’t have answers to its
combo or sideboard.
Cifka/Yuuya
is so lucky he drew his leyline/ancient grudge in both those games
There is a reason high level competitive sideboards
consisting of 4/4/4/3 cards are not common today. Particularly in a format like Modern, the
threats you might face are too varied for you to be able to predict, and you
need to cover your bases. The finalists
having their sideboarded answers is a part of magic – sometimes you have it,
and sometimes you have to fight an uphill battle. Sometimes you topdeck the land you need, and
sometimes you don’t.
That’s Magic!
Why didn’t he build
the storm count more before casting Grapeshot-what if he had removed the
spellbomb during sideboarding?
Then he would have lost the finals of the pro tour, and
presumably kicked himself. Or just used
conjurer’s bauble to get the grapeshot back.
The pressure of a match where EVERYTHING is on the line is
far too heavy to say “well obviously he should have built the storm count
more”. He made a mistake. He let the pressure and emotion get to
him. He then regained his composure and
began to continue his combo.
Shouldn’t
<card> be added as a win condition?
(Disciple of the Vault, Bitter Ordeal, Doubling Season + Jace, Architect
of Thought)
Did you hear Cifka groan when he drew two leylines in a row
while comboing off?
The combo even requires you to thin lands out of your deck
gain the extra percent that the cards you draw will be live. There is a reason Pyrite Spellbomb is the
only maindeck win condition. It can be
used as part of the combo (not a mana-neutral part, though) to draw cards while
going off, and can be tutored for by Reshape if needed, or used to kill a
Deathrite Shaman. I guess this combo is
a way to infinite ultimate with a few Planeswalkers if you’re into that kind of
thing…
<card> needs to
be banned! (Second Sunrise, Conjurer’s Bauble)
It
just takes too long and is boring to play vs. thats why I think they will ban
it
Sensei’s Divining Top was a very specific case. This is no different than a traditional
control mirror matchup going to time. It
may have been boring for you, but I was holding my breath watching game 5. Please, do not complaing that it is
noninteractive. Yuuya proved that there
is always some action to consider, some line of play to give you a fighting
chance. Eggs is not overpowered, it took
advantage of the field and metagame by attacking from an angle the other
players were not prepared for, and with answers for the answers they tried to
use.
To end on a positive
note, here are some posts I found on twitter that I really liked:
Magic
players saying #PTRTR
finals was boring: you should've been learning from the players' decision
making & composure. Learn & improve.
As
many people have said before, the ability to play one type of game makes you
better in others. :) #ptrtr
Infinite
respect for Watanabe who, unlike most of Twitter, didn't whine during the
entire final round and kept a smile on his face. #ptrtr
Congrats to Stanislav Cifka, Pedro Carvalho, Lee Shi Tian,
Eduardo Sajgalik, David Ochoa, Willy Edel, Kelvin Chew, and Yuuya Watanabe on
their Pro Tour Top 8!
Let me know if you have any questions, comments,
opinions. Twitter @dasbif
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